Axonify shows what employees can learn in 1-3 minutes

Let’s play a game of ‘this or that.’

Would you pick this: five-hours in an airless boardroom with endless PowerPoint decks? Or would you choose that: spend three minutes a day playing a kickass video game, racking up points you can cash out later in the form of time off, swag items or bragging rights over your cubicle mates?

The first scenario describes the way corporate training is typically delivered. The second describes the way it’s delivered by Axonify of Waterloo, Ont. It’s not hard to guess which training option many of us would pick. However Axonify CEO Carol Leaman insists it’s not all just fun and games; it also a strategy that works.

“We’re all about three minutes a day of short bursts of learning, which is how the brain actually works. We wrap that all in a fun, game-based experience to make the player actually want to go on and learn every day,” says Leaman.

Axonify uses short interactive games (lasting one to three minutes each) to train employees in everything from sales inventory to workplace health and safety procedures. Over a one-month period, employees are asked one to three questions of training content per game. Correct answers generate points that can be redeemed as mentioned above. Wrong answers lead to more questions. The games ‘learn’ each employee’s knowledge gaps over time so game questions can be adapted accordingly.

The strength in Axonify’s approach is the pairing of gamification with brain science, Leaman says. Research has shown that repeating information in bite-size portions over time helps us retain it better than gorging on a huge amount in one marathon session, she explains.

“If I tell you something, your chances of remembering that 30 days from now are less than 10 per cent,” says Leaman.

But if the same information is repeated five times in 30 days, retention soars to at least 90 per cent, she adds. It’s a model that seems built for today’s mobile, multitasking millennials.

“We have multiple devices and channels of communication with social media and our attention span is totally fragmented,” Leaman says. “People want things in short sound bites but at the same time, interestingly, I think that particular trend actually matches how our brains work. Our particular way of training appeals to all of that.”

Leaman says the market for e-learning based corporate training is worth about $30 billion a year. Axonify is chasing a piece of that, armed with a SaaS-based solution clients can deploy quickly, plus some quantifiable ROI metrics.

An Axonify pilot project at U.S. insurer Capital Blue Cross cut in-house application enrollment errors by 66 per cent. And after Axonify training on safety procedures, accident and injury claims shrank by 45 per cent at Pep Boys, a chain of 700 auto repair shops across the U.S.  Other Axonify clients include Wal-Mart, Toys ‘R Us Canada and Bloomingdale’s.

Formerly known as 17muscles Inc., Axonify raised an undisclosed amount of first-round financing from Toronto’s MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund and Bridgescale Partners of Silicon Valley in March 2012. Leaman also beat out several rivals to win the Startup Idol pitch contest at Fortune magazine’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado in July 2012.

Axonify recently held a contest of its own, asking developers to submit new games for the company’s platform. Entries came in from as far away as India and Europe. Axonify isn’t quite ready to unveil the $5,000 grand prize winner. But based on the response to the contest, the company is launching a permanent developer’s program so new games can be submitted for its platform on an ongoing basis. (Under the program, Axonify has the option to purchase rights to the games it likes.

“It was an experiment to see if we could attract interest from a wide variety of people,” Leaman says.

It’s clear from watching her winning Startup Idol pitch that Leaman has some serious business chops. Her presentation focuses on building a strong case for market fundamentals rather than just killer code. It’s something she comes by honestly; an accountant who also has an economics degree, Leaman has led four startups to successful acquisition exits as CEO. The last one, social media analytics firm PostRank, was snapped up by Google for an undisclosed sum in 2011. At Axonify she’s continuing her track record of putting market dynamics ahead of technology-for-technology’s-sake.

“My finance background keeps me very rooted.  Okay, maybe it’s a fantastic idea.  And you can go build anything. But is there a market segment that’s clearly defined that actually has money to spend on it? I believe my success…is because I am not as enamoured of the technology to the exclusion of all the other elements that make a business successful.”